I thought I was going to be able to retire the “OMG Norfolk” shtick. But I should have known better.
Credit cards again. This time, it is the police chief, who has been under fire lately for a death that occurred in training.
The City Auditor said he reported his concerns about taxpayers footing the bill for the chief’s satellite radio and OnStar subscription to the City Manager several years ago.
Biggest question for me is why are we just learning about this now?
A conflict of interest? Our mayor’s law firm has been engaged by the insurance company of the Community Services Board to represent the agency and its executive director in a defamation lawsuit related to the 12-year no-show employee. This is not, according to the city attorney and the bar association, a conflict of interest. That doesn’t mean it passes the smell test.
No criminal charges. Speaking of that no-show employee, the Commonwealth’s Attorney decided that no criminal charges are to be filed against her. Will the city file civil charges to recover the money? I cannot think of any reason that they should not. After all, if anyone else overpays you – like the government, for example – you have to pay the money back.
Norfolk needs to clean house.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
I agree! Norfolk sould have cleaned house years ago starting with the mayor! In case you didn’t know, I am from Boston, where i know the meaning of cleaning house…… Personally, I would like to see the names of the local city officials that own property in the city of Norfolk and how up to date “they” all are on taxes, codes, etc….
Vivian,
I adamantly disagree with you on the issue of liability of the CSB no-show employee. She was suspended with pay, went home as ordered…and it’s somehow her fault that the CSB was asleep at the switch?
If there are legal issues here, it’s with any employees at the CSB who knew of this and allowed it to continue.
So she should not have to pay the money back because it wasn’t her fault that the city kept paying her? How is that different from any other circumstance where the government overpays someone and they get the money back?
Vivian,
How would you argue to the court that it was an overpayment when in fact she was legally on paid suspension the entire time?
Simple: we pay people to work. And if an administrative error kept her on paid suspension longer than the initial 30 days, that doesn’t change things. Ask the government: when they inadvertently overpay you through no fault of your own, they still get the money back (with some hardship exceptions).
Yesterday at the informal city council meeting, I asked why a civil lawsuit couldn’t be enacted against the employee and anyone who was involved in allowing her to be paid. We need to recoup the money lost. The City Attorney advised that the CSB Board could file a civil lawsuit. And no I wasn’t grandstanding when I asked the question.
Yeah, you were grandstanding, Tommy. Admit it, accept it, revel in it, move forward. We appreciate the grandstanding, even if others don’t.
Bernard saying the CSB could do it. Is this another avoidance of responsibility? He represents the CSB. Don’t understand.
PS keep grandstanding.
While I can see the argument for it being the CSB, the city should be prodding them to do it – and do it soon.
yeah, but the city says the state has the control. and the state says the city has the control.
Sound familiar?
From what I understand, because this infraction was within Norfolk’s borders- the City Attorney does have jursdiction to file a lien or take a judgement against the employee who accepted the $$. There is precedence in others states for situations like this.
I’ve seen a lot of cases where the Navy has overpaid a sailor and eventually the case would be turned over to DFAS for collection.
Shouldn’t Norfolk take a similiar action? Take some kind of collection action, especially when the budget is in the shape that it is in?
I’m still honestly too stunned by the discovery that apparently there’s enough stupid to go around at CSB for something like this to happen without the aid of criminal conspiracy to offer an opinion one way or the other about a civil trial. I would have wagered anything that McGlone had someone on the inside who was keeping her on payroll in exchange for a piece of the action. I’m still not sure that I’m willing to believe that she didn’t — it’s too perfect a scam not to be intentionally executed.
I’d imagine that’s why the FBI hasn’t stopped digging yet.